Butterflies and metallic paint on canvas in artist's frame
299,2 x 299,2 x 15 cm

For his famous butterfly paintings, Damien Hirst utilized thousands of colorful butterfly wings to create the monumental works that evoke a church-like, stained-glass window effect, where the fragility and extravagant color scheme form the basis for a circular ornamental mosaic.

"You have to find universal triggers. Everyone's afraid of glass, everyone's frightened of sharks. Everyone loves butterflies."
– Damien Hirst

"I found an old Victorian tea tray, which had the base of it under glass. Somebody in Victorian times had put butterflies underneath it. And I just thought: 'Wow, that'd look great if you did them big, they're like kaleidoscopes.'"

Raised in Leeds with a Catholic background, Hirst’s connection to Christianity informs his explorations of where religion, art, and science intersect. Inspired by Victorian naturalists who meticulously classified butterflies, he began arranging wings by color to create vibrant, mosaic-like surfaces. Within his broader body of work, these butterfly pieces reflect what may be his most central theme: an exploration of life, death, and beauty through the juxtapositions of materials, symbols, and layered metaphors.

"I suppose I want people to think, mainly. In this instance, I wanted people to think about the combination of science and religion, basically. People tend to think of them as two very separate things, one cold and clinical, the other emotional and loving and warm. I wanted to leap over those boundaries and give you something that looks clinical and cold but has all the religious, metaphysical connotations too."

The dazzling symmetry of Hirst’s Rose Window, achieved through the meticulous arrangement of butterflies on metallic paint on canvas, directly echoes the medieval rose window of the Durham Cathedral, the central church of the Diocese of Durham, UK. This captivating window measures 27.5 meters in circumference and was originally glazed in the 15th century by Richard Pickering. Depicting Christ surrounded by the apostles, it features a detailed design crafted from red, blue, and white glass, accented with shades of yellow. The separate panes, arranged in a geometric pattern, create the illusion of radiating lines that connect each layer, resembling spokes in a wheel. The overall effect results in a perfect circle, symbolizing wholeness and completeness.

Hirst’s butterfly works, first shown in 1991 in his exhibition In and Out of Love, sparked a paradigm shift in contemporary art, drawing both controversy and admiration. These works have been exhibited globally at major museums, including Tate Modern in London, MoCA in New York, the Royal Academy of Arts, and The Broad Museum, becoming a defining part of Hirst’s oeuvre.